The End S5
by Bad Day at Black Rock
Summary: Dean and Kayla get chucked into the future to see how the world pans out when Dean says no
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: These fics are based on real episodes from Supernatural. The characters and plots belong to the creator and writers for the show. If you want background on the OCs you can read the previous episodes

The End

Dean looked at his cell phone as it rang and laughed a little. "Never gets old."

"What?" Kayla was busy securing the hotel room; shutting curtains, laying salt, the usual.

"Cas on a cell phone."

She smiled and unzipped her backpack. "Put him on speaker."

He hit a button on the phone. "Hey Cas."

"Dean, I have an idea."

"Hey Cas!" Kayla called out enthusiastically.

His mind was already set in the seriousness of the situation. "I have reason to believe that the colt is in the possession of some very powerful demons."

"The colt? We're talking about _the_ colt right?"

"We are."

"That doesn't even make sense. Why would demons keep a gun around that, well, kills demons."

They heard some loud traffic noise, followed by Castiel yelling. "What? I didn't get that!"

Dean chuckled. "It's kind of funny, talking to a messenger of God on a cell phone. Kind of like watching a Hell's Angel ride a moped."

"This isn't funny Dean. The voice says I'm almost out of minutes."

Kayla laughed a little. "Quit making fun of him, he's obviously distressed."

"Alright, but I'm telling you Cas, the mooks have melted down the gun already."

"Well I hear differently and if you are still set on the insane task of killing the devil, this is how we do it."

"Okay." He sighed. "Where do we start?"

"Where are you now?"

"Kansas City." He nodded to Kayla.

She grabbed the room key. "Century Hotel, room one thirteen."

"I'll be there immediately."

"Whoa whoa whoa now just wait man. We drove all freaking day. We're human, there's stuff we gotta do."

"What stuff?" He demanded.

"Eat, for example. And in this case sleep, I just need like four hours once in awhile okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay so you can 'pop in'…"

"I prefer angel-zap." Kayla corrected him.

He shook his head. "You can angel-zap in the morning."

"Yes but no fornication. We're on a deadline."

"I make no guarantees." Dean hung up the phone with a smirk. "No fornication, doesn't he know me at least a little bit by now?"

"He does, he's just in denial."

"He's just mad he's never fornicated."

She leaned up and kissed him lightly. "I'm sure you can stay awake a little longer, right?"

"Absolutely." He pulled her over to the bed and kissed her again, making no mental note of a timeline or having to wrap things up. This hunting just the two of them got better all the time.

Sometime early in the morning his phone vibrated across the dresser and he quickly snatched it up before it could wake Kayla. He pulled the phone to his ear.

"Damn it Cas, we need to sleep."

"Dean it's me." Sam's concerned voice came through the speaker.

He sighed quietly. "It's past four."

"This is important."

"Yeah alright." He quietly shifted out of bed and crossed the room towards the window, as far from Kayla as possible. "What's up?"

"Lucifer came to me, in a dream."

"Lucifer. Are you sure you weren't…dreaming?"

"No I'm sure, he's been coming to me for awhile, I just didn't know it was him until he told me tonight."

"Does he know where you are?"

"No, but he's trying to find me. He says I'm his vessel."

"Excuse me?" Dean went back to the refrigerator. This one was going to need a beer.

"He's using a human vessel right now but said it can't contain him."

"Huh." He pulled a beer out of the fridge and cracked it open. "So Lucifer's wearing you to the prom."

"That's what he said."

"Just when you thought you were out they pull you back in huh Sammy?"

"So that's it, that's your response?"

"What were you looking for?"

"I don't know…panic?"

"I guess I'm a little numb to the Earth shattering revelations at this point."

"Well we gotta do something about it. I want back in."

"Sam." He wasn't quite ready for that one and he didn't think Sam was either.

"Look Dean, I'm tired of being a puppet to these sons of bitches. I'm gonna hunt him down Dean."

"Oh, so we're back to revenge now. 'Cause that worked out so well last time."

"Not revenge, redemption." He assured him. "Dean I can do this, I can. I'm gonna prove it to you."

He looked over at Kayla to make sure she was still sleeping. "It doesn't matter what we do. So it turns out that you and me, we're the fire and oil of the Armageddon. On that basis alone we should just, pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good."

"It does not have to be like this, we can fight it."

"Yeah you're right we can. But not together. We're not stronger together Sam, we're weaker. Because whatever it is we have between us, love, family, whatever, they are always going to use it against us. You know that."

"Oh but that doesn't apply to Kayla, right?"

He grimaced. "Leave her out of this."

"How can you say how close we are is a weakness when you won't let her get more than ten feet away from you?!"

Dean sighed quietly. "That's different Sammy, you know that."

"No, Dean, it's not." He waited for an answer but only got silence. "Dean."

He was looking at Kayla, who was still in a calm sleep curled up on the bed. "Maybe I'm just being selfish on that one." He went out into the hall and quietly shut the door behind him.

"You're not doing her any favors by…"

"If I let her go I'll lose my mind okay? I can't do it. She keeps me level."

Sam was quiet for a moment. "I get that, but I don't see why I can't…"

"We're better off apart, end of story. We have a better chance of dodging the demons and Lucifer and the angels and all that mess if we just, go our own ways."

"Let me talk to Kayla."

"She's sleeping. She's not going to change my mind, she's already tried."

"Dean don't do this."

"Goodbye Sam." He closed the phone and went back into the room, slowly getting back into bed.

"What's wrong?" Kayla murmured quietly, still in the light stages of sleep.

"Nothing, Sam says hey."

She paused. "What time is it?"

"Around four, he's in a different time zone it's okay."

Kayla was either satisfied with the answer or too tired to inquire any further about it. She slid her fingers across his shoulder and closed her eyes again. Before Dean could even reach for the light she was back into a steady sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ow._ Dean groaned quietly as he started to wake up; his whole body ached, like he'd been sleeping on…springs? He was fairly certain he'd gone to sleep on a crappy motel room mattress. These were definitely springs.

"Kayla, wake up." The room looked like it survived a fire that had burned out months ago.

Kayla sat up but didn't get out of the bed, she was taking everything in. "Did we drink last night?"

"No." Though that would have made more sense. Dean went to the window and saw the street outside in even worse condition. It looked like a ghost town after a major disaster. Did the apocalypse really sneak up on them like that? How the hell did they sleep through it?

They quickly pulled their things together and took to the streets. It was eerily quiet; no traffic noise, no businesses running, everything was destroyed and empty. In the midst of the silence a small noise came from around the corner and they followed it to find a dirty child sitting in the street.

"Little girl?" Dean called out to her.

"Sweetheart are you okay?" Kayla went with him towards her but she kept her head down.

"You know that not talking thing is kind of creepy right?" Dean told her, he stopped when he saw blood dripping from her mouth.

The little girl looked up suddenly with a snarl and slashed at him with a piece of broken glass. She shrieked inhumanly as he darted back and went for him again, Dean punched her in the face to knock her out.

"Well done." Kayla nodded. "Took out the kid."

"She cut me."

"Dean look." She motioned to the wall behind them, where _Croatoan _was spray painted across the dirty brick.

"Oh crap."

Suddenly a whole group of ravenous faces were coming around the corner. Dean didn't have to give the word; they took off running. They were infected but they were fast as hell and soon they found themselves backed up on a chain link fence. It wasn't looking good until a loud rumble came up behind them.

An army tank pulled up to the fence and a group of uniformed soldiers opened fire on the monsters while they were drinking beer. One even turned on music over the loud speaker while they were firing away. Dean jerked the fence open enough for Kayla to get through and followed her.

"I don't think we want to talk to them."

"Apparently not." She kept walking but had no idea where they were going. "What the hell is going on?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." He glanced back to the sign on the fence. "August first, 2014."

"No shit."

"This just keeps getting better."

The Impala was nowhere to be found. All they _did _find was more empty destruction and proof of the croatoan virus. It seemed to be everywhere. Not surprisingly their cell phones weren't working, or any kind of payphone they found either. When night fell on them they decided to steal the first car they could get running and head for Bobby's house.

"Hey so Sam called last night."

"Yeah." She yawned. "I vaguely remember that."

"He said Lucifer has been communicating with him through his dreams."

"Why?"

"Apparently Sam's his vessel."

Kayla looked at him, trying to figure out if she really just heard that. "Sam is Lucifer's vessel?"

"That's the word on the street."

"That's so weird." She shook her head and turned her gaze to the window.

"I'm not sure weird is the right word for it."

"No, it is. I mean, how crazy is that on a planet of billions of people, that everything comes down to you and your brother. You're Michael's vessel, he's Lucifer's vessel. It's like, you guys were born to kill each other."

He let his mind wrap around that one. "Yeah that is weird."

"Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia."

They both stopped to push their hearts back down their throats before looking to Zachariah, reading a newspaper in the back seat.

"I thought I smelled your stink on this back to the future crap." Dean grumbled.

He continued. "President Palin defends bombing in Houston. Let's see what's happening in sports, that's right, no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly. What's left of congress that is."

"How did you find us?"

"I'm afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources as of late. Human informants. We've been making inspirational visits to the 'fringier' Christian groups. I've been giving your image, told them to keep an eye out."

"The bible freak outside the motel."

"Onward Christian soldiers."

"Well good, great. You've had your jollies you son of a bitch now send us back."

"Oh you'll get back, all in good time." He folded the newspaper in his lap. "We want you to marinate a bit. You have three days to see where this course of action takes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your choices have consequences. This is what happens to the world if you continue to say no to Michael. Have a little look see." He disappeared from the back seat.

"Three days…" Kayla said. "Can't be that bad, we're almost through the first, it'll be late morning before we even get to Bobby's."

"Nothing we can't handle." He smiled reassuringly.

"Though I don't see why _I_ had to go and suffer your consequences."

He smirked. "Moral support sweetheart, moral support."

"Right." She smiled. "Or maybe they think I'll tell you to say yes to Michael."

Dean tilted his head slightly, then focused back on the road. "Do you think I should say yes to Michael?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. I'm more worried about you personally, what it'll do to you. I mean, you'd think letting Michael in and saving the world would give you some kind of immunity and they'd let you come back in one piece…but what if they don't? What if you just have to suffer the war and die?"

"I'd definitely be asking for a refund on that bullshit."

_Bobby's house._

"Bobby?" Dean peered through the doorway of Bobby's now even more run down place. "Bobby we're coming in."

He motioned for Kayla to stay behind him as he quietly slipped through the house; he didn't want to freak him out and get shot. The house was messier than it's usual disarray and looked like it had been gone through. Dean stopped when he saw Bobby's wheelchair tipped over on the ground.

"Oh no." He lifted it up.

Kayla touched the bullet hole in the back of the chair, it was in the perfect position to go straight through his heart. "Poor Bobby."

Dean went to the fireplace and pulled off the hidden compartment to get to Bobby's journal. After quickly sifting through the pages he found a photograph of a small group of people standing with rifles. Among the people armed in front of the gate were Bobby, Dean, Kayla and Castiel. There was an old wooden sign next to them.

"Camp Chitaqua."

"Guess we know where we're going."


	3. Chapter 3

Kayla came to with a radiating pain coming from her wrists, which were handcuffed to a pipe. What the hell had happened? They had reached the camp after dark and Dean saw the Impala. While they were looking through it, trying to find some clues…that was all. Somebody must have got them quick from behind because it was all a blank. It looked like they were in an old shack, maybe a small cabin. She looked over to Dean, who was also handcuffed.

"Dean." She called out but tried not to be too loud, she didn't want to alert anyone. "Dean wake up."

He didn't, but it did alert whoever was there with them. The front door opened and in walked…Dean?

"Holy shit." She didn't cover her surprise, she really didn't anticipate running into…themselves.

"Yeah you're telling me." He studied her for awhile. "What the hell are you? I tried rock salt, silver, holy water, you guys are a new breed and I don't like it."

"Um, try human. Kayla, in case you forgot in the last five years. That's…you. Wow." She was trying to read his expression. "What the hell happened to you?" His physical features hadn't changed much at all, but his demeanor was all out of whack. He looked…dark, hateful maybe. No, it went further than that.

"Excuse me?"

Dean, er, _past_ Dean woke up then. He saw…himself, and had the same confused reaction. "What the hell?"

That seemed to frustrate future Dean even further. "No see I'm the one who gets to say that kind of crap right now, someone start explaining before I kill the both of you."

"Zachariah." Dean put in quickly. "I'm you, from the tail end of 2009. Zachariah plucked us out of bed and threw us five years into the future. I see we're still a handsome devil."

He wasn't amused. "Where is he, I want to talk to him."

"I don't know."

"Oh you don't know." He repeated skeptically.

"No. Look, I just wanna get back to my own freaking year okay?" He didn't want this drama either, he was enjoying the present.

He stared between them and rubbed his mouth with a grimace before kneeling in front of his past self. "Okay. If you're me, then tell me something only I would know."

How stereotypical. Dean thought it over and glanced to Kayla. "Sorry about this, don't get weirded out we were all young once."

She rolled her eyes; must be a girl.

"Rhonda Hurley." He already seemed impressed by the name. "We were um, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink, and satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it."

"Dean." Kayla breathed in expected disbelief.

Future Dean seemed to buy it. "Touché." He went back to his gun. "So what, Zach zapped you here to see how bad it gets?"

"I guess. The croatoan virus right? That's their end game?"

He nodded. "It's efficient, incurable, and scary as hell. Turns people into monsters. They started hitting the major cities about two years ago, the world really went to crap right after that."

"What about Sam?" He asked.

Dean stopped and tensed, gathering himself before looking at him again. "Heavyweight showdown in Detroit. From what I understand Sam didn't make it."

"We weren't with him?" Dean sounded surprised, despite their current separation. It wasn't permanent.

"No. Me and Sam, we haven't talked in…hell, five years." He sounded saddened by the figure, his voice hinted regret.

"Well we didn't just blow each other off, didn't we ever go looking for him?" Kayla asked.

Dean stopped and walked over to her, leaning down close like he was trying to get a better look. Really he was trying to figure out if they were full of crap but seeing Kayla was already doing a number on him. His voice softened slightly when he answered her. "We had other people to worry about." He headed for the door.

"Where you going?" Dean demanded.

"I gotta run an errand."

"What you're just gonna leave us here?"

"Yes. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse over their head. The last thing they need to see is a version of the Parent Trap. So yeah, you stay in lockdown."

"Okay, alright, fine. But you don't have to cuff me man." He wasn't stopping. "Oh come on, you don't trust yourself?"

"No, absolutely not."

"At least loosen her up it looks like it's cutting off circulation."

He hesitated and his face returned to anger, knowing he was using a weakness but he went over and loosened the cuffs on her wrists. They had left deep red circles where the skin had rubbed raw and he gently ran his thumb over the marks. "I'm sorry." He muttered and went back to the door, he looked back at her like he was going to say something but stormed out and slammed the door.

The way his future self looked at her didn't seem right. If it were him, which it was, apocalypse or not he would have been trying to figure out that threesome in his head. Dean suddenly felt uneasy and he looked to Kayla

"You good?"

"Yeah." She sighed, she hadn't missed his actions either. "Considering. You look pissed off in the future."

"Yeah well, that's not really a stretch."

She gave a worried smile. "I guess."

"You working on those cuffs yet?"

"Of course." She had been shifting them back and forth and could already feel them slowly sliding down her hand. "Don't rush me."

"Oh yeah, we've got like a day left to figure out why we're here but uh…no rush."

"I see you're still detained."

"I'm working on it."


	4. Chapter 4

After about half an hour they were both freed from their cuffs and ready to rummage through the future some more. As much as they wanted to get back, it was kind of fascinating at the same time.

"I'm pretty sure this is your cabin." Kayla told him. "I'm going to dig around, see if I can find anything useful.

"Okay but if you find any porn…"

"It's not yours."

"Right." Dean walked out of the cabin. The place seemed to be set up as somewhat of a wilderness headquarters with tents, jeeps, a satellite…and a whole lot of wilderness. As he stepped off the porch he saw Chuck approaching him.

"Hey Dean, you got a second?"

"Hi Chuck, no, I mean yes. I guess." Chuck seemed more confident now.

"We're pretty good on canned goods for now but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and hygiene supplies. People are not gonna be happy about this. So…what do you think we should do?"

Dean hesitated, hell, he didn't know. "Um, I don't know. Maybe…share?"

"Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be out on a mission?"

"Absolutely, and I will be…"

"Uh oh."

Dean followed his gaze behind him just in time to narrowly miss a blow to the face by a very pissed off woman. She took another swing and Dean got behind Chuck, since she was clearly not after him. "Easy lady!"

"Reesa." Chuck reminded him.

"Reesa."

"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night didn't you?"

"I…what?" This was all wrong. He looked to Chuck. "Did I?"

He nodded.

"I thought we had a 'connection'." She supplied air quotes.

"Um, I'm sure that we do but…"

She stormed off.

"Bye Reesa." Chuck called out.

"Screw you."

"Damn." He rubbed his neck and tried to piece it together, wondering if he really _should_ piece it together. He wanted to ask where Kayla was, but he couldn't. Surely Kayla would have gone with him on whatever errand he had to run. Why the hell was he sleeping with the chicks at the camp? "Is Cas still here?"

"Cas?" Chuck laughed. "Yeah, I don't think Cas is going anywhere. He's down at his cabin." He motioned with his hand.

"Thanks."

Dean jogged down the beaten dirt path to the cabin on the end. The doorway had decorative beads hanging from it and he could hear Cas's voice speaking quietly from inside. Thank God.

"These are fragments of total perception. Just one compartment of the dragonfly eye of group mind. Now, the key to this total shared perception is surprisingly physical." Cas saw him in the doorway and looked over with a goofy smile that was out of place on him. "Excuse me, ladies I think I need to confer with our fearless leader a moment. Why don't you go wash up for the orgy?"

Dean's eyes went wide; did Cas just say orgy?

Cas watched the women file by him, smiling to each one. "You're all so beautiful." When they were gone he stood and stretched; Dean took a look at what was now apparently Castiel. He was dressed casually and his hair was a mess, complete with facial hair. He'd kind of let himself go, he looked more like a yoga instructor than an angel. "What are you a hippy?"

"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me." He turned towards him. "Whoa, strange."

"What?"

"You, are not you, not now you anyway."

Thank you Cas. "No, I mean yes, exactly."

"What year are you from?"

"Two thousand nine."

"Who did this to you? Was it Zachariah?" He was speaking quickly now.

"Yes."

"Interesting." He rubbed his beard as if piecing together some mass conspiracy.

"Yeah, it's fricking fascinating. Now why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar."

Castiel then _giggled._ Yes, giggled. "I wish I could, uh, 'strap on my wings' but sorry, no dice."

"What are you, stoned?"

"Generally yeah." He nodded in agreement.

Ah man Cas. "What happened to you?"

He shrugged. "Life." He stated matter-of-factly. Then his eyes lit up a little in anticipation. "Is Kayla with you?"

"Yeah she's checking out the cabin. Cas…" It was then that he saw the glint of silver chain around his neck and Dean pulled the small angel pendant from behind his shirt. Seeing her necklace on him made his heart stop. "She's not here is she?"

The sound of dirt beneath tires caught their attention and Dean stepped outside to see two vehicles returning to the camp. Cas came up beside him.

Future Dean hopped out of the jeep and tossed a beer to one of the men with him, cracking his open in a toast. The other man did the same and as he raised it to his lips, Dean raised his gun to him.

"Hey," Dean yelled to him in warning. "Hey watch out!" What the hell was he doing?

He shot him in the head without hesitation. "Damn it." He muttered as he saw the other men staring in complete wonder at the two Deans. "I'm not gonna lie to you. Me and him, it's a pretty messed up situation we got going but believe me. When you need to know something you _will_ know it. Until then, we all got work to do." The men disbursed without questioning the order.

"Kayla!" Cas called excitedly as she was coming down the steps of the other cabin. He jogged over to greet her and hugged her tightly with a grin. "It's so good to see you, wow."

Kayla laughed and returned the hug. "What the hell happened to you?" The question seemed to be going around a lot today, but it was more favorable than when she asked Dean earlier. Unlike him, Cas was in a great mood.

"Marijuana, mostly." He grinned uncontrollably. "But it's great to see you."

It should have been funnier than it was, but it was more disturbing than anything. He was so happy to see her, like he missed her. Like he hadn't seen her in a long time.

"Okay seriously." Kayla snapped. "Someone tell me what the hell happened to me and why I'm not part of this."

Future Dean wouldn't look at her, in fact, he looked more pissed than before. His nose creased for a split second between his eyes, the way Dean did before he lost his temper. "You." He pointed at Dean. "Inside, _now._"

Kayla threw her hands up as they went inside. "What the hell."

"Kayla?" Chuck saw her and came towards them.

"Chuck, look, it's Kayla!" Cas grinned, like someone introducing a guest to a party. "She and Dean are here from the year 2009 to prove how bad everything gets when Dean says no to Michael!"

"That's um…that's cool." He said uneasily. "Does she know yet?"

"No, I thought you should tell her. Being the prophet and all." His tone was still upbeat, though he was trying to bring himself down.

"Funny."

Cas motioned them into his cabin. "Come." He led them through the door, where the women were back and waiting for him. "The orgy has been postponed, we're going to need some time ladies, please."

They quietly filed back out of the room.

"The orgy Cas? Really?" It seemed like just the other day Cas was shaking in terror at the idea of sex.

He shrugged. "A lot has changed."

Chuck sat down at the small table and took a deep breath. "So I guess you figured out that you're not here."

"Yeah I caught that. What _kind _of not here am I?"

"You died." He sighed. "About a year ago."

"Well, awesome." Kayla sat down and tried not to overreact, she waited for further explanation.

"You were with the group in town collecting supplies; food, hygiene, first aid, that kind of thing. There was a group of croats, more than usual for the area but apparently some survivors had wondered into town and they were after them. Um, anyway, by the time you guys got caught up there was only one surviving human and it was a little boy, around seven, maybe eight."

Cas had grown increasingly uncomfortable since Chuck started explaining and finally went back to the doorway. "Excuse me." He left before Chuck was finished.

"You just refused to let that kid die. There were too many of them and he was trapped, there was nothing anyone could do, _nothing_, but you wouldn't listen. To avoid being dragged off you started the retreat with the rest of them, then took off in the other direction before anyone had even noticed. Dean thought you were behind him."

Kayla just listened, trying to piece everything together. Surely she must have thought there was a way to save him. She wouldn't have gone back if she didn't she could do it.

"The croats were so out of control they weren't even focused on turning you, just fighting you and they messed you up pretty bad with the weapons without even laying a hand on you. Dean got you back here, but we just didn't have the resources. I don't think it would have mattered if we did. And I mean Cas, Cas lost his healing mojo years ago but he still tried to do it, he cried when he couldn't save you and Dean…Dean just lost it."

"Wow." She shook her head, a little in disbelief and she tried not to tear up thinking of her own demise. "That um…that fucking sucks."

"Heh, yeah. But I mean, you know now. So maybe you can keep it from happening." He tried to sound positive but she could sense his underlying wariness. The future was grim and there wasn't much of anything good about it.


	5. Chapter 5

Kayla walked back out and Cas was waiting for her on the porch. She touched his shoulder but he kept his eyes on the ground, kicking at the dirt on the porch before he saw her looking at her own necklace around his neck.

"You have to understand. To you, that child was the last representation of everything that was good about the world. But you were Dean's, you always had so much faith in us. Of all the times you tried to explain love to me, I didn't truly understand until I watched him go through that."

Dean's behavior was more rational now that she knew the whole story. "That's why he won't hardly look at me."

"I'm sure it's hard for him, seeing you and knowing you won't be staying." He smiled slightly. "But you should try to talk to him, even if it's only temporary it would do him some good. Later, of course, when he's calmed down." His enthusiasm peaked again. "So two thousand nine, this is all so fascinating. What are you doing, in your time?"

"Well we were sleeping…we were supposed to meet with you in the morning. You said you thought some demons had the colt."

He thought a moment, trying to clear the drug from his head so he could think. "Yes, right. After the whore house."

"Yeah." She liked it better when he'd referred to it as a den of iniquity. Cas was all grown up and jaded now.

Future Dean called a meeting that night to explain the game plan. On the mission that day they'd found the colt and he wanted to use it to kill Lucifer. He gathered his key players, being his other self, Cas, Reesa, and Kayla he didn't really invite but she showed up anyway.

Reesa stared at the gun on the table. "So that's it. That's, _the _ colt." Apparently he'd been talking about it a bit.

"If anything can kill Lucifer, this is it." He explained and watched in distaste as Cas propped his feet comfortably on the table. Apparently he didn't like how he turned out either.

"Great, have we got anything that can _find_ Lucifer?" Reesa directed at him.

He heard the anger in his voice and looked up at her. "Are you okay?"

"Oh." Past Dean cut in. "We," he glanced to Kayla and corrected himself. "_You_ were in Jane's cabin last night, and apparently, you and Reesa have a connection."

If looks could kill. "You wanna shut up?" He held his hands up. "Besides, we don't need to find Lucifer we know where he is. The demon we caught last week was one of the big guy's entourage. He knew."

Reesa still didn't believe what they were doing. "So a demon tells you where Satan is and you just…believe it?"

"Oh trust me. He wasn't lying."

Cas was calm as he spoke. "Our fearless leader I'm afraid is all too well schooled in the art of getting to the truth."

"You're torturing?" Kayla blurted out. "You can't go back to that Dean you know what it does to you."

Even past Dean agreed with that. "Torturing huh? Yeah that's, that's awesome. Classy."

Castiel chucked and shrugged off future Dean's look. "What? I like past you."

He laid a map on the table. "Lucifer is here, now. I know the block and I know the building."

"Oh good," Cas noted. "It's right in the middle of a hot zone."

"Crawling with croats, yeah. Are you saying my plan is reckless?"

"Are you saying we uh, walk right up the driveway past all the demons and the croats and we shoot the devil?"

"Yes."

"Okay. If you don't like 'reckless' I could use…"

"Are you coming?"

"Of course. But why are they? I mean he's you five years ago so if something happens to him you're gone right?"

"He's coming." He shot back.

Cas wasn't arguing. "Okay. We'll um, we'll get the grunts moving." He and Reesa headed for the door.

"We're loaded and on the road by midnight." He ordered.

"Alrighty!"

"Why are you taking us?"

"I only wanted to take you." He grimaced and started throwing weapons into his bag. "You'll be fine, Zach's looking after you right?" He glanced towards Kayla and his expression momentarily weakened before he focused back on his bag.

"That's not what I mean. I want to know what's going on."

He sighed and stopped packing. "Yeah okay. You're coming because I want you to see something. I want you to see our brother."

"Sam?" He looked confused. "I thought he was dead."

"Sam didn't die in Detroit. He said yes."

"Yes?"

"To Lucifer?" Kayla asked.

"You're damn right. You remember that when you're thinking Sam is all good and innocent all the damn time. Lucifer is hanging out in his skin."

"Why would he do that?"

"I wish I knew, but now we don't have a choice. It's in him and it's not getting out." He raised the colt. "And we gotta kill him, _Dean._ And you need to see it. The whole damn thing so you can do it different."

"What do you mean?"

"Zach said he was gonna bring you back, right? To '09?"

"Yeah."

"When you get back home, you say yes. You hear me? Say yes to Michael."

"That's crazy. If I let him in he's gonna battle the devil, he's gonna torch half the planet."

"Look around man. Half the planet is better than no planet which is what we have now! If I could do it over I'd say yes in a heartbeat."

"So why don't you?"

"I've tried! I've shouted yes til I was blue in the face but no one's listening! The angels left, just gave up! It's too late for me but for you…"

"There's gotta be another way."

He nodded, knowing that answer was coming. "Yeah that's what I thought. I was cocky, never actually thought I'd lose. But I was wrong. I'm begging you, say yes." He walked up to him, making sure he was getting the point. "You say yes, and save millions of people. You don't have to watch her die. You don't have to get here, and kill your own brother." He watched his facial expression. "But you won't. 'Cause I didn't. Because that's just not us is it?" He shook his head. "You would rather risk everything," he finally looked at Kayla. "I risked your life because I thought there was another way, and I lost." Without another word he walked out and slammed the door.

"This is insane." Kayla rubbed her eyes. "This whole thing is nuts. Everything's gone to shit Dean."

"Oh you noticed." He sighed and hugged her; no matter what they did he wouldn't let her die. He could take care of her if nothing else. "We won't let it get to this point though, now we know, now we can make it better."

She nodded. "That's the whole idea right?"

"You should talk to him." Even Dean was miserable seeing himself in the condition he was in.

"I was planning on it."

"Maybe before we go on the insane kamikaze mission."

"Right." She kissed him again and headed out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

"_I brought the whiskey." Chuck gave Dean the bottle with a shaky hand._

_He jerked the top off and lifted Kayla enough to drink it, she cried out in pain with the slight movement. "Down the hatch sweetheart, it'll dull the pain."_

_She drank but knew it wouldn't kick in fast enough; Ryan was already going to work cleaning and stitching wounds that were too far gone to save. He had been a medic before showing up here and they'd considered themselves lucky, but she didn't think it would do much good now._

"_I can't stop the bleeding." He told them._

"_It's nothing, baby you'll be fine." He looked back at Cas, who was pacing furiously behind them. "Cas anything, please."_

_He made the sign of a cross in front of his and kneeled beside her. As much as he wanted it, this wasn't like the last time. Castiel's hands on her wounds didn't numb the pain and she coughed out a ragged cry._

"_Dean I'm sorry." Kayla barely muttered._

_He wasn't giving in on this. "There's nothing to apologize for, you're fine." _

"_I thought they wouldn't expect it, I thought…" but her next cough brought blood and her face strained to hide the pain. She gripped down on Dean's hand._

"_Kayla."_

_Cas saw her body still and he pulled away, looking at his blood-soaked hands through teary eyes._

"_Kayla." Dean repeated, more demanding this time._

_She took a breath but it cut short as her head turned to the side._

"_Man do something!" Dean yelled at Ryan._

_He looked at him with respectful sympathy and checked her pulse. "She's gone man."_

Dean was sitting on the steps of his cabin with his head resting in his hands. Cas was so excited about all this, like a kid in a damn candy store. He could hardly stand it. As many times as he prayed for this, begged to an absent God that Kayla were here again, this isn't what he had in mind. This was going to haunt him. When he heard light footsteps he raised his eyes to the path and his thoughts were drowned out by his longing to see her. It had been so long and he stood slowly to watch her approach, his eyes followed her all the way to the foot of the stairs.

"I had a dream like this." Actually he'd had countless dreams like this, and this would end up the same. He would wake up and she'd be gone. Just thinking about it tore at him and he walked into the cabin. He just couldn't do this now.

Kayla hopped the steps and grabbed the door before he could shut it, she let herself in. "Dean, please don't walk away. You can talk to me."

She didn't have to ask him twice, she really didn't have to ask at all. As she stepped towards him he reached out and closed both his hands around hers. "I love you." He never said it enough.

Kayla smiled softly. "I love you too."

His fingers traced lightly across the top of her hand, nearly too soft to belong to a hunter. "Are you disappointed in how I turned out?"

"Not disappointed, confused maybe."

It almost hurt to look into her eyes. How could she be confused? How could she not understand what this had done to him? "I told you once, that I didn't want to do all this without you." His voice trembled and he swallowed hard against the emotion, but he couldn't keep his eyes from tearing up. "And just like everything else I was wrong, sweetheart, it's not that I don't want to. I can't." A tear slid down his face. "I can't do it."

Kayla brushed her hand against his face and watched as his hardened expression slowly faded away. He didn't look angry anymore, he looked…broken. She wanted to tell him to be strong, that people were counting on him for survival but she couldn't bring herself to do it. He'd had enough responsibility dumped on him for several lifetimes. It wasn't fair.

He tried to tone down his devastation but he knew there wasn't much time. It took everything in him to keep level. "How could you do it to me Kayla? You told me I was stuck with you, no matter what and you lied. You left me here to deal with this on my own."

She bit back a rush of tears and wrapped her arms around him tightly, it was unbearable to see him like this. "I'm so sorry baby, you know I love you. I wouldn't do anything to try to hurt you like this."

The embrace made him lose it altogether and he couldn't stop the tears from coming as he pulled her against him. It felt so good to hold her again, God he wished he could keep her here. "I can't stop thinking about you, every minute of every day your face is in my head and nothing makes it any easier. I miss you so much."

Her lips softly grazed against his neck and she swore she could feel the tension leave his body. "But I'm here, you don't have to miss me right now."

He didn't need to be prompted. Dean tilted her chin up and kissed her not with the rough urgency that she expected, but with a soft, devastating longing she didn't think she'd ever forget. His trembling hands made him eventually pull away again and he lowered his head. "Kayla I'm so sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't you be sorry, okay?" She kissed him again. "Don't you think any of this is your fault." It was those damned angels, so much for their paradise on Earth.

"I wish you were still here to tell me that, you told me that all the time." And even though he thought it was crap, hearing her say it always made him feel better. "I didn't even get to say goodbye to you, you know? Our whole lives the possibility of dying was right in our faces and I didn't even see it coming."

Kayla slid her hands over his shoulders until he looked her in the eyes again. "Dean, I'm right here. How many people get this kind of opportunity?"

He glanced to the door; everyone would be ready to go soon. "A lifetime isn't enough to say goodbye to you." But when she smiled again he couldn't help but smile back and suddenly he didn't care about anything happening outside that door. His fingers slowly slid through strands of her hair before they traced across her cheek and down the soft curve of her neck. Every movement was cautious and deliberate, he wanted to remember every inch of her skin. When he kissed her it overcame all his thoughts about tomorrow, he forgot to remember that this wasn't going to last.

Kayla was surprisingly overwhelmed by his sudden compassion; she was so used to him masking everything from her. Everything about him right now was different. He wasn't putting up a strong front and he wasn't holding back, it was pure, raw emotion. As she leaned into the kiss she slid her hands into his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders.

Everything at once seemed to slow down. He felt her warm, smooth hands trail up his back as she pulled his shirt over his head and for the first time in a long time, Dean felt human again.


	7. Chapter 7

Unfortunately time hadn't slowed down and before they knew it, everyone was heading down a dark road to meet Lucifer. Past Dean had hopped in a car with Cas, after he argued with himself about it. _She's going back with you, she's driving with me._ Seemed reasonable enough.

Dean looked at Kayla sitting next to him in the car, a scene so familiar to him it almost lost his focus. He cleared his throat and kept his eyes on the road. "Can I tell you something that you'll never know if I don't?"

She had been absently running her fingers across the top of his arm. "Sure."

"If you and me were living a different life, I would have wanted everything with you."

Kayla looked at him but his expression wasn't giving any hints. "What do you mean?"

"I mean everything. The picket fence, kids in the yard, flat screen on the wall, all that nuclear family stuff I told you was bullshit. I wanted it, even then I wanted it but it just didn't fit into our reality. This is our life, and I'll never tell you I want it any other way."

"Until now." She said quietly.

He shrugged. "Better late than never."

She smiled a little. "I think we'd make a great addition to Suburbia."

"Hell yeah we would." He tried to lighten it up but the underlying tone was still laced with regret. "Everyone woulda wanted us as neighbors."

The brief reminiscing of things that could have been pretty much left them quiet for the rest of the trip. When he stopped the car at the head of town he leaned over and kissed her, soft and longing and his hand lingered at her neck.

"Kayla, you have to promise me something. If things get bad like this again, and let's face it, they will…" he shook his head. "Don't go after that kid. Okay? You can't save him, and it's horrible and we'll have nightmares thinking about it but we'll deal with it together okay?" He kissed her again. "Please. The end of the world is bad enough, I can't do it without you."

She nodded. "I promise."

He looked at her a moment, he had another lifetime of things left to say but they were here for a reason. As soon as he stepped out he refocused. The downtown area was deathly quiet; not what they expected for a croatoan hot zone. No one fired at them, nothing even moved around them.

Future Dean led them to the building and scoped it out. "There, second story window. We go in there."

"You sure about this?" Reesa questioned him, expecting a fully honest answer.

"They'll never see us coming. Trust me. Weapons check, we're on the move in five."

Past Dean exchanged a look with Kayla; this was all wrong.

"Hey, um…me. Can I talk to you for a sec?"

He glanced to the others but followed him around the corner, refusing to look at Kayla as she followed along.

"Tell me what's going on."

"What?" He questioned blankly.

"I know you. You're lying to those people, and to me. I know your lying expressions, I see them in the mirror. Now there's something you're not telling us."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Dean." Kayla urged him and his expression broke again.

"Well just look around, I mean seriously." He snapped. "This place should be hot with croats. Where are they?"

Dean paused. "They cleared a path for us. Which means that this…"

"Is a trap." He finished his sentence.

"Well then we can't go through the front."

"But we're not. They are. They're the decoys. We're going in through the back."

"You can't do that." Kayla told him, the shock was clear in her voice.

"You're gonna feed your friends through a meat grinder? Cas too? You're going to use their _deaths_ as a diversion?" He could tell from the look on his face that it was in fact his plan all along. "Ah man, something is broken in you. You're making decisions I would never make, I wouldn't sacrifice my friends."

"You're right." He answered coldly. "_You_ wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess actually.

"These people count on you, they trust you!"

"They trust me to kill the devil and to save the world."

"What are you saving?" Kayla shot at him. "There's nothing left Dean, what's the point? You kill Lucifer and go back to camp with a handful of people that don't even have basic survival skills?"

"Who said anything about going back?" He grimaced. "Lucifer is going to die, that's what I came here to do."

"No, not like this." Dean told him. "I won't let you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

He punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. His eyes glanced over Kayla. "You should probably watch…well, me. Croats around, don't want to get killed when I'm knocked out."

"Dean you're better than this, please don't do this."

"I don't have a choice."

She was trying to focus on checking Dean but was nearly panicked at the idea of all those people walking into their deaths. Not just all those people…"I want to talk to Cas."

"No."

"Cas!" She yelled out, she'd blow his whole damn cover.

"Stop!" He barked out the order. "I'll get him."

Dean wasn't showing signs of coming to and she gave him a decent shake. "Please wake up, come on."

Castiel came around the corner and didn't look surprised to see Dean laid out on the ground. "What's wrong?"

"Cas you can't do this, it's a trap. You'll die in there!" She pleaded with him.

His expression stayed calm. "I know."

"You know?" Had everyone lost their damn minds? "What do you mean you know?"

"You've seen the condition of this Earth. Kayla, there's nothing left. We do what feels good to pass the time but…there's honestly nothing truly good to live for anymore." He shrugged. "So, so what?"

The tears filled her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Hey." Cas spoke softly and kneeled beside her, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't take it like that, we've done what we can here. We gave it our best shot and well, things didn't pan out. It's good that you're here to see it, really, because maybe you can fix it." When she didn't answer he hugged her tightly and stepped back. "I'm sorry, I know this must be very overwhelming to you."

Dean glanced between them. "Are they ready?"

"As ready as they're going to be."

"Then let's go." He took one more look at Kayla. "If you follow us, they will kill you. You understand? They'll kill you and you'll never go back. I'm sorry." He added before following Castiel back to the group.

The order to attack didn't take long. Kayla saw them heading towards the building and tried to distract herself by getting Dean awake. She was calming down at first, trying to take it as Castiel had told her, but when the rain of gunfire started she buried her face in her arms to wipe the tears from her eyes.

Gunfire seemed to do the trick and Dean opened his eyes with a start. "What the hell happened?"

"They went in, Dean it's too late."

"How long ago?"

"Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes."

He climbed to his feet. "Come on."

They went around the back way, the way they were supposed to go in. As they rounded the corner a flash of lightning crashed across the sky and they saw future Dean on the ground, his neck under Sam's foot. Kayla cried out but quickly covered her mouth as he snapped his neck. Not Sam, Lucifer.

He turned towards them. "Oh, hello…Dean, again. Kayla. Aren't you a surprise? You're come a long way to see this, haven't you?"

Dean looked at his brother's body, now taken over by Lucifer himself. "So go ahead, kill me."

He tilted his head. "Kill you? That would be, redundant, don't you think?" He glanced to the body behind him. He sighed quietly. "I'm sorry, it must be painful for you to speak to me in this shape. But it had to be your brother, it had to be." He reached his hand out t comfort him but Dean shied back. "You don't have to be afraid of me Dean, what do you think I'm going to do?"

"I don't know, maybe deep fry the planet?"

"Why? Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful, in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handywork of God. Did you ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?"

"Oh God, you're not going to tell me a bedtime story are you? I'm almost out of bile."

Kayla couldn't even speak, all she could do was look into Sam's eyes and try to deal with the shock that he wasn't there.

"You know why God cast me down? Because I loved him, more than anything. Then God created…you. The little, hairless apes." The spite laced through his words. "And then he asked all of us to bow down before you, to love you more than him and I said Father, I can't. I said these human beings are flawed, murderous. And for that, he had Michael cast me into hell. Now tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially when I was right? Look what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it?"

Dean grimaced off his look. "You're not fooling me, you know that? With this, sympathy for the devil crap. I know what you are."

"What am I?"

"You're the same thing only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly to the ground supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you, is the size of your ego."

Lucifer smiled at him, the kind of sympathetic smile a parent would give a toddler who'd fallen over accidentally. "I like you Dean, I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye. We'll meet again soon." He started to walk away.

"You better kill me now!" He yelled at him, stopping him. "You better kill me now, or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop."

"I know you won't. And I know you won't say yes to Michael either, and I know you won't kill Sam. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up here. I win. So, I win."

Dean shook his head, a tear running down his face. "You're wrong."

"See you in five years Dean."


	8. Chapter 8

Zachariah zapped them back into their motel room.

"What are you, the ghost of Christmas? Screw you."

"Enough." Zachariah said calmly. "Dean, enough. You saw it right? You saw what happens. You're the only one who can prove the devil wrong, just say yes."

"How do I know this isn't one of your tricks? Some angel hocus-pocus?"

"The time for tricks is over. Give yourself to Michael. Say yes, so that we can strike. Before Lucifer gets to Sam, before billions die."

Dean looked at him, then at Kayla. "Nah."

"Nah?" He repeated in disbelief. "Do you mean you haven't learned your lesson?"

"Oh I learned a lesson alright, just not the one you wanted to teach."

"Then I'll just have to teach it _again_!" He shouted. "Because I got you now boy, and I'm never letting you…"

His sentence was cut off, they suddenly on the street with Castiel.

"That's pretty nice timing Cas." Dean nodded.

He smiled smugly. "We had an appointment."

Kayla hugged him tightly, with definitely more enthusiasm than Castiel could understand. Dean patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't ever change."

He smiled to Kayla as she finally let him go. "How did Zachariah find you?"

"Human informants." She told him.

"Yeah, let's stay away from Jehovah's witnesses." Dean was already dialing on his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done in the first place." Kayla smiled at him and he pulled her over to kiss her on the forehead. He was going to change the future, the whole freaking thing.

_Epilogue_

"Sam!" Kayla could hardly let him get out of his car before she threw her arms around him excitedly.

He grinned. "I missed you too." Thank God for Kayla making him feel human. He looked to Dean, who wasn't nearly as excited to see him.

"Sam." He reached in his pocket and pulled out Ruby's knife. "If you're serious, and you want back in, you're gonna need to hold on to that."

He took it from him.

"And I'm sorry, you know, whatever I need to be. I was wrong."

"What made you change your mind?"

"Long story. The point is, maybe we are each other's Achilles' heel. Maybe they'll find a way to use us against each other I don't know. I just know, we're all we've got. More than that, we keep each other human."

"Thank you." Sam nodded. "Really, thank you. I won't let you down."

"Oh I know it." He smirked. "You are the second best hunter on the planet."

Sam smiled. "So now what?"

"We make our own future."

"I guess we have no choice."

"Besides." He grabbed Kayla and slid his arm around her shoulders. "How could I say no to a face like that?"

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "It is pretty pathetic."

"Damn you just got back! You can't be a jerk to me already."

"At least give it a few days." Dean smirked and headed back to the car.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Thanks. I'm starving."

"Me too."


End file.
